Sugar maple tree named Commemoration

ABSTRACT

This disclosure concerns a new and distinct variety of Acer saccharum (commonly known as sugar maple tree) characterized by its exceptional growth habit with thick, leathery leaves, a tight, compact, oval shaped crown with a heavy distribution of leaves which are not subject to tatter, and its extreme ease of propagation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This new variety of sugar maple tree was found growing in a planting ofsugar maple seedling beds at my Duncan Nursery in rural Champaign, Ill.,and grew to a height of five feet in the first year. Each year since, ithas had a robust growth habit, better than twice as rapid as usual sugarmaple trees, reaching a caliper of six inches (approximately fifteencentimeters) in ten growing seasons. As the tree grew, it exhibitedthicker, leathery, darker color leaves with a definite sheen or luster.More leaves appear at the crown than other trees in adjacent rows ofsugar maple trees. I now have two hundred trees in my nursery at Urbana,Ill., all propagated by budding.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A new and distinct cultivar of sugar maple tree characterized by itsexceptional growth habit with thick, leathery, dark green leaves with adefinite sheen or luster, a tight, compact, moderately spreading crownwith a heavy distribution of leaves not subject to leaf tatter as aresugar maples grown in a wide midwest area of the United States, extremeease of propagation with new bud growth exhibiting tall, straight stemsand many well-distributed branches, and the leaves changing to apronounced shade of red, orange and pink in the Fall, color occurringten to fourteen days in advance of other sugar maple trees observed, andpersisting beyond the first killing frost.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The other sheet shows the colors of the upper and lower leaf surfaces.

One sheet discloses in the lower photograph leaves from my new varietycompared with the leaves of the normal red maple tree on the left. Theupper photograph shows the tree taken in the Fall.

The colors shown are as nearly true as it is possible to obtain byconventional photographic procedures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW PLANT VARIETY

The following is a detailed description of my new variety of sugar mapletree, the stated observations having been made of trees growing in mynurseries at Champaign and Urbana, Ill., both cities in ChampaignCounty, and in East Central Illinois in general with color designationsaccording to the Horticultural Colour Chart of the British HorticulturalCouncil.

Origin: Seedling.

Parentage and classification: Variant of Acer saccharum.

Form: Tree.

Shape: Upright with broad crown.

Height: From 30 feet to 36 feet, growing 5 feet during the first year,including very dense branching. Tree grows with straight trunk and isvery robust.

Trunk size: 15 cm. (ten growing seasons).

Growth rate: Relatively fast for the species.

Bark: Medium to dark gray, smooth at first soon becoming shallowlyfissured with a tan inner bark revealed in fissures.

Branches: Numerous, stout, glabrous, the lower ones ascending, the upperones obliquely-upright; first year stems olive-green marked with small,circular lenticels, the second year stems orange-brown and slightlyfissured, the third year and older stems brownish-gray.

Angle of attachment.--60°.

Size.--300 cm. in length and 4 cm. where attached to the bole and 3 mm.at the tip.

Spacing.--30-40 cm.

Leaves: Mature.

Length.--Up to 15 cm.

Width.--20 cm.

Form.--Deciduous, opposite, 4-ranked, firm in texture, palmately lobedwith 3 large lobes and 2 smaller basal lobes, the bases beingsubcordate, the lobes long wedge-shaped to their bases and acuminatewedge-shaped, the teeth slightly rounded, the blades of mature leavesbroader than long.

Veins.--Palmately arranged, reticulate.

Petioles.--14 cm. in length.

Texture.--Firm and leathery.

Color.--131A.

Pubescence distribution.--Confined to tufts of hair in the axels ofveins on the lower leaf surface.

Winter buds: Sessile, pubescent, narrowly conical olive-brown with 10 to14, 4-ranked bud scales, the terminal buds 6 to 7 mm. long, the laterbuds 4-ranked, 3 to 6 mm. long and opposite with good survival rateduring the winter months.

Fall color: Vivid red 33A, pink 38A, and orange 168B, with small amountof yellow, the pink and orange colors fade away after a very short spaceof time.

This variety resembles a sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum) and clearlydistinguishes from other sugar maple trees by its rapid growth habit inthe stand growing under similar field conditions, its darker colored andabundance of leaves with good sheen or luster, holding itsdistinguishing characteristics through propagation by budding andconsistently producing heavily branched, uniform progeny with straightboles, its freedom from leaf tatter, and in the Fall the leaves turninga pronounced shade of red, orange and pink at an early date andpersisting.

I claim:
 1. A new and distinct variety of sugar maple tree,substantially as herein shown and described, characterized by the uniquecombination of its relatively fast and dense growth, freedom from leaftatter, numerous strategically placed branches, its abundance of thick,dark colored, leathery leaves, thick in comparison to most sugar mapletrees, with more leaves on the compact oval crown, its relative ease ofpropagation and an excellent survival rate of buds throughout the wintermonths, with the leaves turning red, orange and pink in the Fall, thered color exhibiting ten to fourteen days prior to most sugar mapletrees with leaves persisting for a longer period of time after the firstkilling frost than other sugar maple trees observed.